Electrical connectors are configured to transfer electrical signals between complementary electrical components. For instance, an electrical connector can be mounted to a first complementary electrical component, and mated to a second complementary electrical component so as to place the first and second complementary components in electrical communication with each other. The electrical connector can include a dielectric or electrically insulative connector housing and electrical conductors supported by the connector housing. For instance, the electrical conductors can include signal conductors and ground conductors that are disposed between respective ones, pairs, or other quantities, of the signal conductors. The signal conductors can carry data signals, optical signals, or the like between the first and second complementary electrical components. The electrical conductors of some types of electrical connector can further include electrical power conductors that are configured to transmit electrical power between the first and second complementary electrical components.
Certain electrical connectors are configured to mate with at least one substrate, which can be configured as a printed circuit board, that includes the electrical conductors. Such printed circuit boards are commonly referred to as paddle cards. For instance, the electrical conductors can be configured as electrical traces that are disposed on an exterior surface of the substrate, disposed in an interior layer of the substrate, or can have a portion that is disposed on the exterior surface and a portion that is disposed in an interior layer of the substrate. Certain electrical connectors can be configured to mate with one paddle card, while others can be configured to mate with first and second paddle cards, thought it should be appreciated that the present disclosure is not limited to the number of paddle cards. The electrical connector can be configured to be mounted to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board. Thus, the first complementary electrical component can be configured as a printed circuit board, which can be configured to transfer electrical data. The second complementary electrical component can be configured as at least one paddle card that, in turn, is in electrical communication with an auxiliary component such as a transceiver.
Examples of such electrical connectors include serial attached small computer system interface (“SAS”) connectors and its variants, such as mini-SAS and mini-SAS HD connectors. Accordingly, reference herein to SAS connectors is intended to refer to all such SAS connectors and their variants, including but not limited to mini-SAS and mini-SAS HD, unless otherwise indicated, and all other electrical connectors that are configured to receive at least one paddle card.